


Harry Potter's Trials

by Rebldomakr



Series: Ash of the Holly Tree [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Animal Death, Gen, Mythology - Freeform, this is a prequel to a story that hasn't been written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2019-12-25 20:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18268892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rebldomakr/pseuds/Rebldomakr
Summary: Before Harry’s story begins, he is tested to see if he’s worthy of a new destiny.





	1. The Animal (which may or may not be real)

**Author's Note:**

> This story is unbetaed and DEEPLY in the works. I've been planning something like this out for a long time. I've just only actually started it. Tags will be added as the story progresses, but some might not be added until I'm entirely certain of them! I don't want any spoilers to occur. I will tag any warnings if something gets really gorey or anything like that, promise.

The animal sits in front of Harry. It’s like a dog, but isn’t. Its tail stands up unnaturally straight behind it except for the tip which is slightly crooked, occasionally moving side to side like a metronome. The tail isn’t even furry, except for the very end where the fur comes out like a fork and shines like metal. It has a head that vaguely reminds Harry of a giraffe. The only reason Harry thinks it’s probably a dog is because its body reminds Harry of the long-haired lab that lives down the street from the Dursley’s. Its fur is all black, but perfectly curled and beautiful to look at it – only the fur is only on its body. The animal’s head, and tail, is naked.

It stares at him nearly always, no matter where Harry does. In these past few weeks, he’s learned that no one else can see the animal except for him. However, if it knocks into something the object – or person – will move. The other day, it ran into Dudley and when Harry’s cousin fell he thought he just tripped over his own feet. He told his parents, however, that the reason his pants were dirty when he came home was because Harry pushed him.

“What do you want?” Harry asks, sounding a little miserable.

He’s hungry.

Lately, the animal has been doing things to make Harry get into trouble. Pushing Dudley, making Harry drop food in the kitchen, ripping out grass, and peeing on Petunia’s flowers to make them wilt. As a result, meals have been withheld. He’s given the bare necessity to keep him alive. At least he’s used to the pang of hunger, though it’s never been this bad.

Normally, Harry wouldn’t say animals did things on purpose. But, clearly, this thing isn’t really an animal. It’s something else. It’s smart. Harry can tell from its actions, and its eyes.

For the many-th day in the row, the animal sits in front of Harry. Stares at him.

“Are you a demon?” Harry asks. “Or a ghost?”

The animal stares.

“What do you want?” Harry asks again.

The animal stands up. It moves its head to the side before it turns around, like it was beckoning Harry to follow as it walked away.

Harry didn’t have anything else to do. So he stood up, too, brushing off some of the spring ground from his pants as he walks slowly behind the animal.

It walks on and on. They make no turns, until the end of the street. Then the animal turns to the right and picks up in a run.

Within seconds, it’s running as fast a horse. Harry has to jump forward to start after it.

“Hey! Wait!” Harry shouts, then winces because two kids glanced over at him in confusion. He waves, while he runs, and nearly falls.

The animal just runs faster and faster. It crosses the street, making random turns. A couple of times, Harry swears the animal takes him in circles. Harry runs until his sides begin to hurt and he can barely tell where he is.

He skids to a stop, breathing heavy. He lets himself fall to the ground. His legs tremble against the warm pavement. He coughs and places his hand over his chest, where he can feel his heart stammering and stumbling over itself. It hurts to breathe.

“Hey, kid, you alright?” Someone approaches, cutting off his view of the animal still running away.

“Yeah.” Harry gasps out, struggling to stand.

That’s the end of that, Harry figures.

Only it isn’t.

Three days later, Harry just finished doing the dishes. He walks outside to enjoy the last bit of sunlight before he’s sent into his cupboard under the stairs. It’s a school night. He has to get up extra early, then, to help Aunt Petunia with breakfast.

Just as he steps outside, the animal runs past him. Per experience, Harry knows better than to just let the animal walk around. Something is going to break, that way, and he’ll of course get the blame.

Harry sighs and goes right back inside. He closes the door.

The animal goes up the stairs. Harry is barely even allowed up there, but Petunia is busy and Dudley’s still outside playing with his friends and Vernon’s at work. So, he follows.

“What are you?” Harry asks. “What do you even want?” He asks.

The animal pads over to a door and nudges it open with its nose. The hinges are silent as the door swings open slow, revealing his aunt and uncle’s bedroom. It walks inside. Harry stays right in the doorway, watching in confusion as the animal continues on to the closet.

Without anything touching it, the closet door swings open. The animal leans in and bites onto something hidden behind a long coats. It drags it out, revealing a small plastic case with an unlocked padlock hanging off of the clasp. The animal turns around and sits right by it, then just stares at him.

“It’d be a lot easier to understand what you want if you could talk.” Harry tells it.

The animal stares.

Harry sighs. “Yeah. I get it.” He says. “Want me to look inside?” He asks. He turns his head and looks over his shoulder. He isn’t so sure, right now, but there’s something in him urging him on. So, he follows his gut and hopes he won’t get caught.

The animal doesn’t move away as Harry sits down on the ground. Harry removes the padlock and pushes the case open.

It’s a safe, Harry realizes. There’s more money inside than Harry’s ever seen in his life.

Then, for the first time ever, the animal opens its mouth and _talks_.

“Leave with me.” It says. Then it stands, walking away.

“Oh my god.” Harry says. He looks over his shoulder. “Do you want me to take the money?”

The animal doesn’t answer. It pauses by the door and looks at Harry. It seems impatient.

Harry doesn’t know what comes over him when he closes the case and stands up. He follows the animal downstairs. He takes his book bag by the door and dumps out everything inside, then shoves the case inside of it. The case barely fits.

“Boy!” Petunia yells. “It’s time to start making dinner!”

“I’m hungry.” Harry mutters, but the animal obviously doesn’t care. Harry sighs and stands up.

He doesn’t know why he’s doing this. He’s going to regret this. What is he going to do when he comes home? They’ll know he stole this money. He doesn’t even know what he’s going to do with it.

Still Harry opens the door and lets the animal out. Harry shoulders the book bag and walks after it, following the animal down the street. When it makes the same turn as before, it doesn’t start to run.

“You could have let me know you could talk.” Harry said, even though he’s beginning to think that this animal is just in his imagination. He wonders if he’s crazy. A freak, just like the Dursley’s always said.

As he leaves the suburbs, Harry surprisingly doesn’t care that he’s running away from home. He wonders if the animal will lead him home later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you guess what the animal is?


	2. The Cold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbetaed.

The animal walks on for hours. They leave the sameness of suburbia rather quickly, coming out into older and older neighborhoods. The homes are more and more different from each other, the further they go away from Privet Drive. Less kids play outside. More strays wander the streets. There’s less green, more cement and stone. Then, they leave behind neighborhoods altogether. The animal takes Harry into a forest.

It’s a normal forest, really. Like all the tree clusters he’s driven past before, ones he’d looked at amazed at the unfamiliar beauty.

“Why are we going through here?” Harry asks.

The animal does not answer.

Harry knows, for sure, they aren’t anywhere close to Privet Drive anymore. He feels like they aren’t even in England anymore, they’ve been walking so long, but he knows that’s a stupid thing to think.

The forest turns from something normal and gentle looking, to something dark and more like something he’d see in those cheesy horror movies that his aunt and uncle watched on the television. The trees become older, thicker around and taller, branches so plentiful that when he looks up he can barely even see the sky.

Eventually, they stop. And Harry is so grateful that they do. His legs ache with a pain he’s since walked past, his shoulders feeling the same. He drops the book bag and drops himself, too, sighing out heavy.

“What was the point of taking the money?” He asks. “We aren’t anywhere close where I could get food.”

He wishes the animal would’ve done this after he ate something. Maybe led him, first, to somewhere he could buy something to stuff into his face. The last thing he ate were a handful of cruelly counted green beans and a bowl of old, cold porridge straight from the refrigerator.

They didn’t even stop in a clearing. Harry’s sitting on a thick root, one that’s been unearthed either because it grew too big or because the ground got weathered away.

“What am I supposed to do here?” Harry asks.

He looks up. Tries to see the sky. It’s getting dark already.

“Be smart.”

Harry’s head snaps down and he stares at the animal.

It doesn’t say another word before it suddenly vanishes, turning into black smoke that diffuses slow into the air.

The wind becomes a little harsher, suddenly. Smacks Harry from the side. He shivers. It’s too cold to stay still. He’s only wearing a t-shirt, leaving his arms open to the wind’s cold. He wishes he had grabbed a jacket.

Harry sighs and slowly stands up. “Need to find somewhere to sleep.” He tells himself. He grabs his book bag. Maybe, if he could find his way out of the forest, he could find a inn and rent a room for the night. Find his way back home or wait for the animal to reappear.

Naturally, attempting to get out of the forest proves nearly impossible. He walks in the direction where he thinks he came from, but eventually he’s stopped by a wide river. There’s no way to cross it and, besides, Harry hadn’t crossed a river anyways. He’d gone in the wrong direction.

So he turns right around, walks straight. His legs ache, but the pain is muffled by the need. At least whiel he’s moving, he doesn’t feel as cold as he does when he’s standing still. The wind has only gotten stronger. One gust nearly knocks him down, as he swears he walks past the tree he had sat down by.

Beyond the feeling in Harry’s legs, his stomach pangs and screams. Harry almost begins to cry, climbing over a large rock. He fights back the urge to start sobbing. He’s lost and alone, but it’s the pain in his stomach that makes him want to give up.

His palms are covered in dirt, so he uses the back of his hand to rub at his right eye to try to force back the tears. His eyes sting.

It’s completely dark by the time Harry stumbles into a clearing. It looks like it was once used as a campground, fairly recently. There’s a half-gone firepit made of must have been scavenged rocks with charcoal built up in the center. There’s holes in the ground, too, where someone had probably pitched a tent.

At least, here, the moon’s light makes it a little easier to see.

Harry falls to the ground and begins to sob. He just wants to be back underneath the stairs, in his cupboard, where it’s warm.

He hates this.

“Why did you do this?” He screams out into the open air. His cheeks burn. Tears run down his face, leaving behind trails that feel like they are going to freeze against his skin.

Harry pulls his book bag off of his shoulders and flings it. The bag doesn’t go very far, only a few feet. It slams into the ground with a thunk and the sound of plastic snapping.

He rubs angrily at his face with the bottom of his shirt, trying to dry it off.

“I’m going to die and it’s your fault!” Harry yells. He sniffs and sits down on the ground. How is he supposed to survive the night? It’s just getting colder and colder, especially the longer he stays still.

Like a lightbulb going off, Harry suddenly remembers something he saw in a documentary once. It was just a clip, played before Dudley groaned and changed the channel. A rabbit digging a hole in the ground to sleep in during the winter. It’d be warmer underground, Harry thinks. Traps in body heat. Maybe. He isn’t entirely certain.

Still, it’s worth a try.

Harry gets onto knees and starts to dig his fingers into the near-frozen ground. He pulls out chunks of dirt, until the ground softens so much he has to scrap his fingers up and down the walls of his hole. Throwing out handfuls of crumbled dirt, the pieces getting smaller and smaller, harder and harder to get into his hands and throw away.

He digs and digs. He digs even after his fingernails begin to bleed, catching on rocks and roots. He winces when a piece even tears off. The blood oozes and it makes it harder to dig, but he still digs.

He creates a tunnel. He digs until he can fit inside of the tunnel. He slides in and out, each time a struggle, slowly taking handful after handful dirt out to the surface. By some miracle, he finishes when it can still do some good.

A frost settles over the forest just as Harry shivers in a small space underneath, just three – maybe four – feet below the surface. Slowly, he warms. He huddles into himself and pants. His breath is cold, but it doesn’t seem to take long before he can feel his face again.

Harry falls asleep.

As the boy sleeps, the night only gets colder and colder. Everything damp froze through solid, as the temperature drops and drops. Some animals, who ventured out and lived in the open sensing the warming weather, died from the cold. Others knew better, and slept as peacefully and safely as Harry did himself.

Though Harry’s nose ran and he still occasionally shivered, he was warm enough.

A wind slams through the forest. Branches break. A dying, weak tree snaps as easily as a twig and falls hard to the ground. A bird tries to take flight and the wind grabs onto it, guiding it right to the ground.

The spring night is unnatural, but hardly anyone is around to witness it. In the morning, reporters will talk of it and be amazed, but Harry will never hear them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think someone should be tested for? Strength, intelligence, courage, power, motivation? What do you think can make someone great?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this second trial is a lot less edited than usual so.....definitely more mistakes than usual but :) I don't really care

Morning comes.

Harry wakes up to the distant sound of birds chirping. He drags himself out of his den with a lot of struggle. The tunnel he had slid through last night squeezes at him, makes it nearly impossible to drag himself out.

The air above is fresh. Harry never thought he would savor the taste of air, but he is. His throat feels both dry and wet. The glide of clean air down makes it feel better, in a way Harry can’t describe.

He fills his lungs and just sits, by the entrance to his den. He breathes, simply enjoying the feeling of being out of his shelter. He brushes off some dirt that had hardened onto his skin, too, but it’s impossible to brush off some patches. He’s going to need to take a very long bath.

It doesn’t take very long for the feeling of hunger to be realized. Harry wishes he could forget about it again. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do for food. He guesses he’s just going to have to try find his way out of the forest, again.

It takes a couple seconds before Harry gets the energy and ambition to stand up. He grabs his discarded book bag. Hopefully, he’ll find his way out before night came again. Otherwise he’d have to dig again. He doesn’t thing his hands could handle digging through the ground for another night. His nails are worn down and chipped.

The forest is different during the day, Harry realizes. He sees birds flying and insects crawling. He hears the crunch of twigs being stepped on by animals doing their best to avoid him. He can see the green of the leaves, spot all the colors from berries to mushrooms. It’s beautiful.

Harry can hear the sound of a gentle stream, suddenly. The trickle of water is to his left. So he makes the turn. He squeezes between two large trees instead of just walking around. He slides over earth-covered rocks and roots. The ground gets softer, as the noise of the water gets louder.

The trees stop, suddenly, just as a huge chunk of rock overlooks clear water. It runs between rocks and over pebbles, splashing onto itself and sloshing at the sides where the rock is becoming dirt.

Harry slides off of the side of the miniature cliff, landing on dry ground.

As his feet land on the solid ground, both of his ankles give a terrible twinge. He loses his balance and falls face first. He yells out loud and short. He uses his elbows and tries to twist his body, attempting to roll off the fall. He smashes his forearm into a pointed rock sticking just barely out of the ground and his hipbone slams on the ground. His glasses go flying and land. The right lens cracks.

Harry doesn’t even get up, at first. Lays there and just closes his eyes. But eventually he does get up. Shuffles over to his glasses, picks them up. Shoves them back on, ignores the weird blur-line in his vision now.

At least there’s the stream. Harry’s thirsty and he’s filthy. He could drink some water and wash off the dirt and blood on his hands.

He sits by the edge. Takes off his shoes, tossing them to the side. Removes his sweat soaked socks and dumps those, too. Wriggles his toes and sighs softly at the air tickling them. He also leans down and cups some of the water. He drinks until he can feel all of it sloshing around in his tummy, too much of it inside.

A twig snaps behind him. Harry turns his head, not really expecting anything.

Harry’s luck, however, hasn’t been kind to him so far. Even if a giant snake didn’t come out from between the trees and bushes, it isn’t like misfortune wouldn’t have thrown something else at him anyways.

The snake that comes out is about as wide as Harry’s head. It seems to just go on and on forever, slowly slithering out into the open. Its colored like sand, solid light brown with two beady black eyes. Harry didn’t know snakes could have eyes that dark.

It pauses for a second, before it suddenly raises itself.

“You will die!”

Another talking animal. Harry hopes that, this time, it’s just hunger that’s making him crazy. He doesn’t want to be hearing things from everything now. Next, it’ll be a rock.

The snake lunges. Harry barely manages to get out of the way. It snakes into the ground, but it just seems to make it angrier. It continues to yell threats at him – “Die! Die! I will you eat whole! Die!” – even as it shakes off the smack to the head. It goes after him again.

Harry runs.

He runs and runs, dodging every lunge and snap the best he can. The snake manages to get the back of his t-shirt, biting on and tearing off a patch. It comes close again, this time biting onto his shoulder.

“Let go!” Harry screams, mostly in pain, as the snake plucks him right off of the ground. He flings himself around in its grip, kicking his legs and throwing his arms. He manages to punch it on the side of its head and its mouth opens. He falls three feet down onto the ground.

He curses and stands up. He can’t run from it. It’s too fast for him. As the snake lunges for him again, this time Harry bends down and snatches a rock from the ground. It’s small, but it’s harder than himself.

He keeps it in his palm and smacks the snake as it comes down. The rock worked, though not much. Scales tear off of the snake and it hisses, very angrily Harry notes, before it comes flying back down for him.

Harry rolls to the side and begins to feel the ground for a bigger rock. The snake latches onto his calf in the meantime.

He screams and kicks his leg to try to make it let go. Finally, as he’s being dragged closer, his hand catches a large, sharp rock. It scratches through his skin, but he manages to pluck it out of the ground.

The rock in Harry’s hand goes flying and smacks hard into the snake’s head. This time, as it shakes off the injury to resume attacking, Harry lunges for it inside. He grabs onto the snake’s head and pulls it apart. Its so much stronger than him. Its body is moving like lightning in the sky. Its nearly impossible to finish what his instinct screamed at him to do, but he manages.

He tears off the snake’s jaw and it falls to the ground, in shock. The large body twitches, but it stills quickly. Blood pooling out onto the ground.

Harry drops the torn jaw. He shivers.

As the adrenaline fades and his beating heart settles, Harry realizes he’s more lost than he was in the first place.

“Great.” Harry mutters. He looks over the snake. When his eyes reach the snake’s tail end, he realizes the animal is back.

Staring at him.

“You’re back.” Harry says. “Great! Are you real? I would really like some help getting out of here.”

The animal turns around and begins to walk. Harry dutifully follows, hoping desperately that this animal isn’t just a figment of his imagination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> two trials done! one more to go. can you guess what was being tested in this chapter?


	4. Chapter 4

The animal takes Harry back to the stream. It waits while Harry picks up the book bag, shouldering it. He thinks it feels less heavy, probably because he’s just been carrying it near-constantly since he got lost in the forest. It’s been less than a day though it doesn’t feel like it.

“I wish you’d talk again, like all the time.” Harry says. “I don’t get it. Are you real? Why did you take me here? Why did I take my aunt and uncle’s money? I can’t spend it here. We’re in a bloody forest!”

He goes on and on, talking aimlessly. The animal ignores him and begins to walk again. He follows it.

It walks back into the mess of trees. Harry, at least, is far better practiced in walking on the forest ground than before. It’s easy to stay only a foot behind the animal. He doesn’t fall, not once. Keeps an eye down to watch anything that might make him trip.

He realizes quickly that the animal doesn’t seem to effect anything. The animal’s foot over a twig doesn’t make it crack. The ground doesn’t crunch underneath it, either. But that makes no sense. After all, he does remember the animal touching things and making things happen. Knocking over Dudley, for instance. It had to be real, but yet…It didn’t feel like it.

Maybe he was just tricking himself into believing that it was the animal. Maybe it’s just been him.

The animal reaches a river. It’s a river Harry’s already seen. It looks more ferocious than it already had.

It’s about as wide as a pool, pushing through the ground with enough might to take down a house. It’d be impossible to swim, even if Harry could swim in the first place.

Then, the animal leaps. It makes it clean across the river, body flying through the hair unnaturally high. It lands on its two front feet than its second on the other side.

It sits, and stares.

“I can’t cross the river!” Harry yells. “I can’t!”

The animal stares.

“Great! More staring! That’s really helpful! I’m going to name you Arsehole!” He yells on. Anger burns up from his chest, uncontrollable fire that burns all the way. “This is bollocks! Can you do something to help? Son of- son of a bitch!” He curses.

Harry just wants to go home. He’s hungry. More than ever, in this moment, he can feel the pain all throughout his body. His legs, his hands, his arms, his back, his stomach – feels like everywhere on him, there’s something wrong. He’s tired.

For a striking moment, Harry thinks he’d rather just die than push on. It’d be so much easier to give up.

Across the river, the animal howls back at him.

“I don’t know what you want.” Harry says, voice cutting off quieter towards the end.

It continues to howl.

Harry sighs.

He looks around him. The only way to cross the river, would be to try to jump. There’s no way he could make it. He’d just fall into the river. He turns around and stares back into the forest. He could just walk back straight. Eventually, the forest has to end. Or he could follow the river. Eventually it’ll have to end, or narrow, or weaken, something would have to give. Then he could cross.

But Harry couldn’t survive the forest anymore. He’s hungry. It isn’t like he knows how to hunt. Maybe, the animal was trying to make him out of the forest. Maybe, not too far beyond the river, there would be food.

If he falls into the river – he hopes drowning is painless.

Harry backs up as far as he can.

Across the river, the animal finally goes silent. It stands up, continues to stare. Harry takes in a deep breath and closes his eyes.

“You can do this, Harry.” He tells himself. “You’ve got this. If you don’t, better than starving.” He nods then opens his eyes.

He breaks off into a run. About three steps from ground turning into water, Harry jumps up. He barely makes it a foot off of the ground, but he goes far enough that it looks like he’s going to go right down into the water. Not anywhere close to the other side.

Harry’s body tenses, a flash of light bursting in front of his eyes. Then, suddenly, he’s flying through the air. He screams, eyes wide.

Despite the fear and shock, the most amazing feeling is running through Harry. He looks forward and sees the stretch of grass. He shivers. He looks down, watches the river as he goes overhead. This isn’t jumping, Harry realizes. Somehow, he’s flying.

He has that startling realization of how impossible this is right after he gets over the river. Then he just, drops.

Harry slams into the ground not too far from the animal. Only, he doesn’t slam. He hits the ground and it feels like a mattress. He bounces up off of the ground like a tossed ball. He lands again, bounces again but not quite as high, then lands a third time. He only goes up a little before he comes back down, still.

The animal is staring at him.

“Was that you?” Harry asks.

He grips the ground, expecting it to be soft, but it’s just as hard as ground should be. Of course. How could dirt be soft like a pillow, spongy like a mattress? “How…?” He wonders out loud.

“Good job.”

Harry looks at the animal. It looks back.

“I really wish you would just talk all the time. Explain this to me.” Harry says. “You’re definitely a demon, aren’t you? Leading me off to some evil thing?” He asks.

The animal turns around and begins to walk again. Of course.

Harry sighs and stands up. “Okay. Fine. Don’t talk.” He says. “I really hope you’re taking to me somewhere to eat.”

Even as much as Harry feels weak, there’s plenty of hope to cover it up. He’s out of the forest now. Even if he ends up lost, they’ll be somebody somewhere. He has plenty of money. He’s going to be okay.


	5. the leaky cauldron

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mistakes! mistakes! i did NOT completely edit this through, so there's going to be grammar mistakes and probably some weird shit in here. i don't care? but if you find them and wanna let me know, I'll thank you so I can fix it

They walk.

The grass eventually parts into a gravel and dirt path. It’s somehow harder than even the forest ground on his feet. The rocks push through the soles of his shoes. Worse yet, he can feel the sun now. There is no shade, no trees protecting him from the heat. Even with the gentle breeze that tickles through every now and then, the sun’s heat feels almost unbearable.

He feels sweat dripping down his back, feels it even on his armpits which is the most disgusting thing he’s ever felt. He’s sweating in places he didn’t even know he could sweat. He’s thirsty, too.

“Where are we going?” He asks the animal.

No answer. Harry doesn’t really expect one, though he likes to hope for one.

They continue to walk.

The sun begins to set when they begin to see houses. Or, at least, farmhouses. They sit surrounded by massive amounts of lands, with animals or crops growing. The smell is almost too much to bear. He tries to just breathe in and out of his mouth, though it’s difficult. It’s as though he can taste the smell on the back of his tongue despite his best tries to ignore it.

“I really hope you’re taking me somewhere with food.” Harry mutters, glancing at a farmhouse. Steam is rising out of the chimney and he swears he can smell fresh roast beef over the stink.

Not too long after passing a rundown brick home, they are suddenly inside of a small town. The sun is almost down by the time they do. It seems like mostly everyone is already gone. Harry doesn’t even care that they are all staring at him like he rose out of the ground itself, because he does probably look it with how filthy he is, and also because he can see a small store not too far ahead shortly after entering the town.

The animal clearly looks upset when Harry leaves it to run inside of the store.

It follows him instead, permitting it. As though it remembered that Harry probably needed something to eat.

A bell rings as Harry enters the door. The man behind the counter in the front begins to greet him, but his “Welcome!” Is cut off by a choked gasp.

Harry nods towards him.

He grabs as much as he can seem to carry with his two arms. From chips and beef jerky to chocolate bars and soda cans. He walks over to the counter. He has to get up on the tips of his toes to drop everything down.

“Do you have the money for this?” The man asks.

Harry nods. He drops his book bag. He unzips it. Without pulling the case out, he manages to open it and pulls out a handful of bills.

He pays and gets his change, shoving it into his front pocket. The man bags Harry’s items and pushes it out towards him.

“Have a good day.” He says, eyeing Harry.

“Thank you.” Harry says. He grabs the bags and walks outside, where the animal was impatiently waiting for him by the door.

The animal stands, tail giving a strangely curled flick as though it was upset, and resumes its walking. Harry dutifully follows, though he also pulls out a bag of chips and tears it open.

Walking is a little easier as Harry eats.

They exit the town out of another way. They walk beside a highway. Every now and then, a car will speed past them. None of them even slow to examine Harry in curiosity. It’s probably too dark to even see him.

He tosses his wrappers to the ground. He drinks two cans of soda between a bag of chips and a sleeve of chocolate chip cookies. He’s going through his beef jerky as they enter yet another town. This one is far bigger. Still, they do not stop. They continue walking.

They exit this town and go out beside yet another road. This one seems a little busier. More cars drive past. Some even slow down a little as they drive past, curious, but then they quickly speed back up once they see him.

“Least it isn’t cold.” Harry comments.

The animal ignores him. It jumps over a large rock. Harry walks around him.

Another car drives by.

“When are we doing to stop so I can sleep?” Harry asks.

Still, the animal ignores him.

“I do need to sleep. I’m not like…Whatever you are.” Harry says.

No answer, of course. Harry sighs.

The animal must have understood him, though. It’s not much longer before the animal is walking away from the road, towards what looks like an abandoned shed.

The structure is actually a very old home. It must have been abandoned long ago. The exterior is wood and stone, but the stone is covered in moss and the paint is chipped. Pieces of it also rest on the ground or are just missing from the siding. The animal waits for him by the door, staring at him until he tries to open it.

At first, the door doesn’t budge.

It continues to stare at him.

Harry pulls and pulls. The door still doesn’t open, though it creaks loudly. It’s been left locked.

“I can’t open it.” He tells the animal.

It looks at him like it’s telling him to find a way to open it anyway.

Harry looks at the door and grabs the knob once again. As he pulls, something swells in his chest. He begs whatever could be watching over him for the door to just open. Then, a small click sounds and the door pulls open with ease – so much so that the strength he was using on it nearly rips it off of rusted hinges.

The animal walks in. Harry follows it. He closes the door behind them.

Inside of the shed, it’s dark. There’s some light streaming in from outside from the occasional distant car speeding past. The animal lays down.

Harry drops the bags containing what’s left of the food he bought as well as his book bag. He lays down, too, and looks at the animal.

“I wish you could tell me what you’re taking me to.” Harry says.

The animal just closes its eyes.

Harry lays down on the dirt floor. He closes his eyes, too.

He sleeps dreamlessly.

* * *

 

Harry wakes up to the sound of someone banging their fist against the door. He jerks, eyes opening and quickly sitting up. He looks around, a little dazed, just as someone yells out, “Open the door! You are trespassing on private property!”

Then, someone else says, “I doubt anyone’s in here.” Though their voice was far quieter.

The fist bangs again. The statement is repeated, demanding Harry to go and open the door. Probably be arrested, too, he guesses.

He stands up and looks around for the animal, finding it just standing up a few feet away. He gestures at the door that is still shaking a little from the force put into the knocks. “What do we do?” He whispers at it, hoping desperately that the people on the other side of the door can’t hear him.

The animal walks over to where there’s a grimy, dusty window. It stops and looks at him.

“You want me to climb out of the window?” Harry asks. The animal stares at him, still.

“Hello! I know you’re in there! I can hear you!”

Harry sighs. “Alright.” He mutters. He grabs his book bag, unzipping it and stuffing the remaining plastic bags instead. Everything smushes and crunches, struggling to fit inside of the book bag. He zips it back up and shoulders it. “Let’s try this.”

He manages to dig the tip of his shoe into a crack in the wall, resting on a wooden beam inside. It creaks as soon as he puts his weight on it. When he uses it as leverage to jump up and grab onto the window ledge, the beam snaps. He holds himself up, arm immediately aching from the strain. He shoves the window open, or he tries to. Instead his hand just smashes through the glass.

The glass shatters into large shards. One cuts through his hand. He winces, but decides might as well continue. He punches out the rest of the glass, until he’s able to begin dragging himself out.

He probably should’ve tried opening the window or seeing if it was locked first.

Harry barely gets through the window. Glass rips his shirt and digs into his skin. He gets stuck on a piece of glass and when he shoves himself forward, he hears the sound of fabric ripping.

He hangs out of the window, then, too, naturally. He whines near soundlessly in pain, wriggling until he manages to drop completely out. The shards tear at his pants and legs, then.

“Oh, fuck,” Harry curses. He stands up slowly.

The animal is in front of him already. It begins to run. Harry doesn’t hesitate to run after it.

“Hey! You!” Someone yells.

Harry runs even faster, fueled by adrenaline.

They run, nearly side by side, until Harry can’t hear the people – two men – yelling after them. The animal slows and Harry does, too, panting and gasping the whole time. He nearly collapses when his knees buckle. He manages to keep himself upright, forcing his legs to straighten back out again.

Everything hurts even more now. The more he thinks on it, the more he realizes all of his injuries, all of the aches and pains.

The animal stares at him. Its head turns down, staring at his leg. Harry looks down, too.

A huge tear is on his thigh, a patch of fabric hanging by threads, and his skin torn open with a shard partially stuck inside.

“Oh.” Harry says. He suddenly feels faint.

The animal then just runs full speed at him and rams into his stomach. He immediately loses his balance. When Harry’s back slams into the ground, he goes completely black.

Harry wakes up in the same place he had fallen. The animal is licking his leg. It stings a little, but it’s tolerable and, in a way, it feels nice.

“You’re fine now.”

He slowly sits up and looks at the animal. “That’s good to hear.” He mutters. It feels like his tongue is a cotton ball in dry mouth. He swallows nothing. “I don’t suppose you’d let me know the point of all this.” He says.

The animal pulls away from his leg. Harry looks down. He remembers a glass shard, lots of fresh blood, and a huge wound. Now, there’s just a scar. There’s lots of blood still, but it’s all dried or a stain on his pants.

“Pretty sure you’re real now.” Harry says. Whatever doubt he had – is gone. There’s no way something made up in his head could do all of…This.

He knows he was hurt. Now he isn’t. He’s pretty sure it’s thanks to the animal. He looks into its strange eyes and says, “Thank you.”

It doesn’t say anything, just turning around and beginning to walk.

Harry stands up. He grabs his book bag, somehow discarded to the side. There’s a small rip at the bottom of the bag now, but at least nothing seems to have fallen out. The corner of the plastic safe, however, pokes out.

They begin walking, once more.

Harry pulls out a can of soda from his bag eventually. It’s warm and the carbonate on his tongue feels like a burn, especially as it slides down into his throat. He still finishes it off completely, too thirsty not to drink. He’s already out of water. He drops the can and pulls out what’s left of his beef jerky.

He chews mindlessly on a strip like a cow on a mouthful of grass.

They enter another town, then they never seem to leave it. It transitions over time, becoming denser and denser. Harry stops at a stall and buys a kabob and a bottle of water. Some people stare at him very obviously, some people make a point to not look at him at all. The animal seems a little more patient with him now, though it knocks into his knee when he spends ten minutes watching someone on a street corner perform elaborate magic tricks.

As the sun sets, Harry’s belly feels empty even though he’s wasted away so much of the money in his bag already. He feels thirsty, still. The aches are very obvious and he’s tired again. So tired, that he wishes he could beg the animal to allow them to stop instead of pushing on until it’s completely dark out. He can’t, because there’s enough people around for them to wonder about the dirt, rag-wearing kid talking to himself.

Then, the animal stops. Right in front of what appears to be a pub, squeezed between a bookstore and a record store.

It looks over its shoulder at Harry and walks up to the pub’s door.

Harry knows he’ll probably get kicked out before long, but he obeys the animal’s quiet command.

He walks inside of the pub.

It’s dark and dingy inside. There’s only a few people, though, sitting in the shadows at old looking tables. Far more people sit along the bar, nursing glasses and talking to each other in hushed voices. The largest gathering outside of the bar is a group of people playing cards underneath a light, lined around a rectangular table.

The animal turns around and stares at him. It bobs its head, before dissolving into black smoke, like it had once before.

Harry’s chest clenches. He doesn’t understand what he’s supposed to do now. But, well, he is hungry. Maybe the pub will serve him. He’ll probably fit in better here, in this dark dingy place, rather than anywhere else in London.

He walks over to the bar and gets on the tips of his toes to ask, “Excuse me? Can I get food here?”

The bartender nods absently towards him, glancing away from the person he was talking to. “You can sit up here if you want, son.” He says. “I’ll get you a menu.”

Harry smiles gratefully. “Thank you.” He says. He drops his book bag on the floor and hoists himself up into a stool. He kicks his legs, back and forth, while he waits for the bartender to come back.

He’s given a menu and the bartender asks him what he would like to drink.

“Um, I don’t know.” Harry says. “What kind of soda do you’ve got?” He asks.

“Oh, we don’t have any of those muggle drinks.” The bartender says. “How about I start you off with some fireball tea?”

“Sure.” Harry says, shrugging. He doesn’t know what fireball tea is, but, it sounds interesting.

The bartender nods and walks away. Harry opens the menu.

“Steak and kidney pie, pretty please.” Harry tells him when the bartender comes back, sitting a wide clay mug that looked more like a soup bowl in front of him. “Um, how much is it though?” He asks. The menu wasn’t very clear. It said sickles and knuts and galleons, which he didn’t understand at all.

“It’ll just be five sickles.” The man responds, picking up the menu and walking away.

Harry sighs. He guesses he’ll just leave a handful of money. There’s certainly enough of it.

He pulls the mug closer himself and peers inside.

The ‘tea’ doesn’t look like tea at all. Instead, it’s a shimmery, red liquid that swirls around and bubbles. He picks up the mug and sniffs. It smells like cinnamon and honey. Harry takes a sip.

A small groan comes out of him completely involuntarily.

The man sitting a few stools away from him chuckles. “Fireball tea is awfully good, huh? Believe me, kid, you’re going to prefer firewhiskey by the time you’re my age.” He says.

Harry scrunches up his nose. He thinks whiskey smells terrible. Whenever he caught a whiff of the stuff, which was always brought out on holidays for his aunt and uncle to share, the foul smell kept him from trying to sample, unlike his cousin Dudley.

The man sees his face and laughs. “Uh huh! Sure, kid! You won’t be making that face for your whole life!” He continues to laugh, but is drawn to start talking to someone else instead.

Harry finishes off the mug well before his food is up. The bartender gives him another mug and takes the old away. He sits there, aimlessly swinging his legs, drinking the fireball tea and watching the people coming in and out of the pub.

That’s when he begins to notice, that he for some reason hadn’t noticed until then.

A cat sits purring on a woman’s lap, an owl sits in the corner of the room. Everyone isn’t dressed like people would, but instead in what looks a lot like dresses. Robes, not dresses, though, Harry realizes fairly quickly. Someone’s looking down at a book that’s turning its own page, or so it seems. There’s a lot of bizarre things, that Harry’s sure he just can’t be seeing right. From the automatic page-turning book to the man arguing angrily with a very bizarre looking cat.

It’s all topped off when he watches a man pull a long stick out of his sleeve. The man points it at a trunk by his feet. He says something, but he’s too far away from Harry to hear it. Then his trunk is shrinking, shrinking – shrunk! As small as the palm of Harry’s hand.

His eyes widen and his mouth opens.

“Here you go, kid.”

Harry jumps and turns away, to watch the bartender put a large plate in front of him. His steak and kidney pie.

“Thank you.” He says, quiet. Didn’t anyone else see what happened? Why isn’t anyone reacting to it?

“When you’re done, just leave the money on the counter. I know you’re probably rushing off to get into Diagon Alley, huh?” The bartender says.

Harry looks up at him. “What’s Diagon Alley?” He asks, confused.

The bartender pauses. He squints his eyes at Harry, like he’s finally just looking at him. He eyes his shirt, first, then those eyes widen. “By Merlin and Morgana,” He breathes. “A muggleborn.”

“A what?” Harry asks. He squints right back at the bartender.

“Nothing, kid.” The bartender says. “Just enjoy your food, alright?” Then he vanishes, slinking off into a back room.

Harry eats, confused even more than before. He wonders what the animal wants him to see here, other than the miracle of shrinking luggage and weird terms he doesn’t know. Sickles and muggleborn, for example.

He doesn’t know what Diagon Alley is. It must be somewhere that’s famous and popular, but Harry reckons he’d know what it is then. Maybe it’s just a London thing.

After finishing his dinner and dropping a handful of bills on the counter, hoping it’d be enough to pay for his food, Harry shoulders his bag once more. He’ll go back to walking and try to find somewhere to sleep for the night, then just wait for the animal to come back again.

Harry’s feet barely hit the floor before someone appears in front of him and says, “Kid, you’re going to have to come with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> prequel DONE bitches wassup I'm proud of myself

**Author's Note:**

> Can you guess what mythical creature the animal is?


End file.
